


Only In The Pegasus Galaxy

by respoftw



Series: 2018 Hurt/Comfort Bingo [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Rescue, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-02 00:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15785316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/respoftw/pseuds/respoftw
Summary: During his long military career - and especially since he’d joined the SGC - he’d thought he’d seen just about every form of holding someone captive possible, some that would have looked more at home in a hard core bondage porno than a hostage situation but he’d never seen anything like this before.





	Only In The Pegasus Galaxy

**Author's Note:**

> Ah, the tentacles fill. This took a lot of attempts because, try as I might, Rodney kept having way too much fun for the story to qualify as hurt or comfort...

John sucked in a breath of shock as the door to the cell opened.  During his long military career - and especially since he’d joined the SGC - he’d thought he’d seen just about every form of holding someone captive possible, some that would have looked more at home in a hardcore bondage porno than a hostage situation but he’d never seen anything like this before.   
  
“Get it off, get it off, get it off, get it off, please, get it off - -“   
  
John wasn’t even sure that Rodney knew he was there, his voice was raw with desperation and John had a feeling that he’d been chanting those words for hours.  John needed him to stop. Fumbling, his hand went to the knife that he habitually wore at his belt and he approached Rodney cautiously, his eyes warily assessing the creature that was wrapped around Rodney’s entire body.   
  
John counted at least twelve tentacle-like appendages emanating from the bulbous head of the creature.  They covered Rodney from neck to ankle and the patches of skin John could glimpse in between the gaps of the coiled tentacles looked bruised and red raw, whether from the pressure of the creature’s hold or Rodney’s fighting with it, John didn’t know.     
  
“Please. Please get it off.  Get it off, get it off, get it off.”   
  
Shaken into moving again by Rodney’s hoarse voice, John moved closer.  The creature didn’t seem to be taking any notice of John’s approach and he wanted it to remain that way as long as possible.  Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that as soon as he started hacking the tentacles away, he’d draw its attention. Looking at the hold it had on Rodney, John couldn’t see any alternative.   
  
John hoped that the others - Ronon, Teyla, Lorne and the eight other marines they’d brought through the gate with them - could hold off the attacking masses long enough for John to get Rodney free but he knew he needed to move quickly before reinforcements could arrive.   
  
“Hold as still as possible,” John said quietly.  “I’m gonna get you out of there, ok?”   
  
“John?”  Rodney’s head swung in John’s direction, his eyes wide and glassy with a heady mixture of pain and fear.  It shouldn’t affect him so much, hearing Rodney call him by his given name but it happened so rarely that John always got a little thrill from it.  “John, you have to get it off me. Please, I’ll do anything. Please.”   
  
John felt sick.  There was no thrill in this.  Rodney was as desperate as John had ever seen him and the fact that he felt he had to bargain to get John to free him - -   
  
“Just try and hold still, buddy.  That’s all you have to do.”   
  
Rodney nodded as much as he could with the tentacles wrapped around his neck, holding his chin high.  John contemplated trying to sever that tentacle first but he thought better of it at the last minute, moving his knife lower to attack one of the thicker tentacles that circled Rodney’s upper thighs first.  His instincts proved right as the first cut of the knife and flash of yellow-green blood caused the creature to tighten its hold, the injured tentacle constricting its hold around Rodney's thighs even more. John cursed under his breath as Rodney cried out in pain.   
  
“Shoot it,” Rodney begged.  “Please. Shoot it off.”   
  
John shook his head.  “I’d hit you too, it’s too close.”  Even aiming for the head would be risky.  John had no idea how the creature would react.  Sure, it might loosen its hold but it was equally likely that the thing would grasp him even tighter.  John still remembered how the Iratus bug clamped down on his neck when he'd begged Ford to shoot it off. He couldn’t risk it. He couldn’t risk Rodney.   
  
“I don’t care. Please, John. Please, please, please.”  Rodney’s eyes took on that far away look again as he started to beg under his breath and John didn’t have a clue what to do.  He was half a second away from just lifting Rodney, tentacle creature and all, over his shoulder and letting Carson deal with it.   
  
Fortunately, Ronon and Teyla chose that moment to come crashing into the cell.  Rodney seemed oblivious to them, still begging helplessly under his breath but John turned towards them beseechingly.   
  
“Please tell me one of you has seen this thing before and knows how to get it off him?”   
  
Teyla looked as floored as John has ever seen her but Ronon didn’t even blink as he switched his gun from kill to stun, took aim and fired dead centre into the bulbous head of the creature before John could even draw breath to warn him not to.   
  
John watched as Rodney’s body went rigid for a second before the tentacles loosened their hold.  Both Rodney and the creature went lax then and John rushed to break Rodney’s fall, only just managing to keep his head from hitting the cold stone floor.   
  
“How did you know where to shoot?” John asked, his voice shakier than he would like it.  Clearing his throat, he tried again. “I tried to hack the tentacles and the thing just bit down.”   
  
Ronon shrugged.  “Figured there was a 50/50 chance that a headshot would do it.”   
  
“You _what?_ ”  John couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice; couldn't believe that Ronon would play those odds when Rodney’s life was at stake.  If he hadn’t been so bust holding Rodney’s head off the ground he’d show Ronon just how unacceptable that was.   
  
“If it was anyone else, you’d take the chance too,” Ronon said, holstering his gun.  “You want me to carry him?”   
  
“No, I got him,” John said between gritted teeth.  Ronon was right and John knew it. That didn’t mean he was anywhere close to admitting it though.  Moving on to his knees, John shifted until Rodney’s still (too still) form was draped over his shoulder and pushed up to his feet, breathing heavily.  Rodney wasn’t exactly lightweight but he’d be damned if he’d let anyone else carry him. The bruising on Rodney’s exposed skin was already spectacular and John could feel the raised welts where the suckers of the tentacles had bitten deep into Rodney’s pale skin.  Some of the marks bled sluggishly where the skin had been broken and John started to worry about infection or poison.    
  
“We should take the - - whatever the hell this is with us,” he said, grunting under the strain of Rodney’s weight.   
  
Ronon hefted it over his shoulder, making it look easy and stalked out the cell without saying another word.  John figured he was pissed but that made two of them.   
  
Teyla waited for John to leave before following behind, her eyes serious and dark with anger. Make that three of them then.   
  
“I know, ok?” John said.  “I’ll apologise to him later.  It’s just that - “ _it’s Rodney_ , he wanted to say but couldn’t.   
  
“We understand.”  Teyla’s hand rested on his arm for just a moment.  “Do you?”   
  
“Do I what?” John grunted as he took the stairs that led up to ground level two at a time.   
  
“Understand why you reacted as you did?” Teyla clarified.  “Ronon is correct when he said that you would not have hesitated to make that call had it been anyone else.”   
  
John swallowed his impulse to shake it off, to bullshit his way out of another tough conversation.  Instead, he nodded tightly, his mouth a thin line.   
  
“It’s Rodney,” he said, admitting it to someone else for the first time.  “He’s...do I need to take myself off the team? If I can’t be rational. If I can’t - -“   
  
“No!” Teyla’s answer was swift and sure.  She smiled, her eyes warm. “I think admitting that your feelings for Dr McKay are different than your feelings for Ronon or myself is a good first step.  Perhaps the next one should be to tell Rodney himself.”   
  
First Ronon, now Teyla.  His team were really on fire with the truth bombs today.  John grunted in answer, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other.  He’d see what happened when (if) Rodney woke up.   
  


* * *

  
Rodney woke up screaming, batting his hands at phantom tentacles wrapped around him and John didn’t even hesitate.  Pushing Carson out of the way he gripped Rodney’s face in his hands, bringing their foreheads together and forcing Rodney to look in his eyes.   
  
“They’re gone,” he said.  “We got them off you. We got you back.  It can’t hurt you anymore.”   
  
Rodney’s breathing evened out with each repeated assurance from John and eventually Carson gave up pulling at him, content that John wasn’t actually making things worse.     
  
“S’dead?” Rodney asked, his voice weak, his forehead still resting against John’s.   
  
“Incinerated,” John promised.  He had watched them do it, standing with his arms folded and his jaw clenched, taking a perverse sort of pleasure in seeing it burn once they’d confirmed that there were no toxins that could have been passed to Rodney through the dozens upon dozens of flesh wounds that the suckers had ripped into his skin.     
  
“Good.” Rodney shifted back, seeming suddenly uncomfortably aware of just how close he was pressed against John.  John moved with him, not letting him put that distance between them, and Rodney flushed pink, clearing his throat. “I, ah, I’m not really sure what’s happening right now,” he admitted.   
  
“ _This_ is happening,” John said.  “If that’s ok with you?”   
  
“This?”   
  
“ _This_.” John closed the small distance between them and pressed their lips together.    
  
“Oh, well, that’s - - I mean, really? Are you sure?  Because _you’re_ so...and _I’m_...”   
  
“Rodney?”   
  
“Yeah?”   
  
“Shut up and kiss me back?”   
  
“Oh.  Yes. I can do that.”   
  
“Well, you can bloody wait to do it until after I’ve checked your vitals!” Carson interrupted, barging into their embrace with a face like thunder.     
  
John stepped aside with a duck of the head, letting Rodney barrage Carson with complaints.  He’d waited this long. He could wait a few minutes longer.    
  
“We cool?” Ronon’s voice rumbled at his shoulder.   
  
John looked over at his teammate and grimaced.  “Yeah, I’m sorry about - “   
  
“Forget it,” Ronon said.  “I’m just glad you finally pulled your head out of your ass.”   
  
“We both are,” Teyla chimed in.

  
“Yes, yes.  We’re all glad, now can we get back to the kissing?”   
  
John laughed as Rodney made grabby hands in his direction.  Carson stepped aside with a long-suffering sigh. “No sex,” he cautioned.  “His wounds need time to heal.”   
  
“I hate tentacles,” Rodney muttered.     
  
John couldn’t agree more.   
  


**Author's Note:**

> This fills the ‘Tentacles’ square of my H/C bingo card which you can see [here](https://respoftw.dreamwidth.org/19969.html#cutid1)
> 
> Please feel free to suggest which square I do next, I'm aiming for blackout!


End file.
